How to Use an Answer File for Unattended Exchange Setup
After you have installed your first Exchange 2003 server, you may be able to install subsequent Exchange servers in unattended mode. An unattended setup of an Exchange 2003 server proceeds and completes without any prompts or dialog boxes. Furthermore, an unattended setup creates an answer file that stores information about a sample configuration. The file can then be used to set up Exchange 2003 on multiple servers. An answer file contains the deployment parameters and sample configurations so that you can specify what type of installation you want to perform. These configurations are normally set when you perform a manual Exchange 2003 installation on one of your servers.
Before You Begin
You can run unattended setup for the following procedures:
Installing the second to nth Exchange 2003 server in your organization.
Installing Exchange 2003 System Management Tools.
Running DomainPrep.
You cannot run unattended setup for the following procedures:
Installing the first Exchange Server 2003 server in your organization.
Installing Exchange Server 2003 in a Windows server cluster.
Installing Exchange Server 2003 in a mixed-mode environment (for example, Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2003).
Performing any maintenance tasks (for example, adding or removing programs, re-installing Exchange, or upgrading from Exchange 2000).
Procedure
To use an answer file for unattended Exchange setup
On a server to which you want to install Exchange 2003 in unattended mode, insert the Exchange CD into your CD-ROM drive.
From a command prompt, type E:\setup\i386\setup /unattendfile D:\myanswerfile.ini, where E is your CD-ROM drive, D is your system drive, and myanswerfile.ini represents the name of the answer file.
For More Information
For detailed steps about how to create an answer file, see How to Create an Answer File for Running Unattended Exchange Setup.
For more information about unattended setup, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 312363, "How to use the Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 Installation Wizard to generate a Setup.ini file for an unattended installation," (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=312363).